Wow!
What an exciting day in energy. Today Bloom Energy changed the game with their Bloom Server, here is why.
We all know the story that the vast majority of our energy comes from old (and dirty) power plants that use coal and nuclear energy sources. Well the hidden truth behind these “energy sources” is that all they do is heat water to create steam and move turbines. They make steam!
How ridiculous is that. We can send a robot to Mars but to power my iPhone I need some boiling water?
This ridiculous market paradigm is what Bloom hopes to exploit (and make billions in the process). They ignore the source argument over replacing coal and nuclear with wind, solar, or heat. Instead focusing on the energy process itself and applying advanced technology to wring some efficiency out of it.
K.R. Sridhar, CEO of Bloom, PhD, and former Director of Space Technologies at UofA, did just that. He found that a combination of fuel cells and natural gas can get 2x as much power as the steam process can (using same inputs). In his own words, they did it through old fashioned innovation:
“I call it R&D on steroids,” K.R. Sridhar said at the start-up’s offices. “We created an R&D platform where you continuously improve, validate and test. Learn why it broke and move on.”
That RD process has turned out one of the most promising energy technologies to date (imagine needing half as much coal). A fuel cell made out of sand and coated in a cheap metal “oxide” (they are keeping the recipe a secret). Each cell is super thin and just a few inches wide/long and capable of turning natural gas into electricity.
That is the fuel cell side to all this, although it doesn’t sound at all like traditional fuel cells.
The kicker is that this is not future technology. These fuel cells are already in place at many large business sites. Google is reported to be the first to have installed one while eBay, who hosted the press event, said to have five Bloom Servers providing %15 of their energy. A server is about 4,000 cells jammed into a black box that looks like an IT server.
That is just the beginning. This technology is so promising that everybody is joining the party. The press event was attended by Arnold Schwarzenegger, Colin Powell, Dianne Feinstein, and Michael Bloomberg (“make no mistake, when we look at Bloom, we are looking at the future of business, economy, and America”).
Finally, the VP and CEO’s of FedEx, Walmart, Staples, Google, Coca Cola, Bank of America, Cox, and eBay were on hand to explain why they love Bloom.
A star studded public relations event or the future of energy technology?
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Ah ha! Now I get it. Thanks. These are very good points.
I guess another good point is the theme Kurzweil always hits about technologies (all technologies) doubling in capability every 2 years. It doesn’t always hold true but if it does with Bloom we are going to just be better off faster.
Bob
Bob – thx for the comment and the tweet.
I think the “fuss” is showing a deepening and broadening in the energy industry. New facets are being examined for potential profits and improvements. The bloom tech is looking at the process. Wind and solar are about the inputs. Carbon capture is about the result (though we have yet to see any commercial tech on this facet).
What will be next?